Readers sound off on Pincus Goods, commercial rent control and PATH trains

Farewell to a Daily News soulmate

McKinney, Tex.: For many years my dad, Pincus Goods, shared and celebrated his birthday with the Daily News. He was born on the Lower East Side on June 26, 1919 — the same day the first issue of The News was published. Each year he loved to send a current photo and a bit about his life and continued to do so as of his, and your, 95th birthday.

In declining health, he peacefully passed away this year on Feb. 20. He was 98 years old. A World War II veteran and survivor of a Nazi prisoner of war camp, feisty, independent, and a one-of-a-kind man, he will be greatly missed by his two children, four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Thank you so much for all the years of publishing my dad’s letters and photos. It meant the world to him and I have all of the articles which he saved, framed and hung on the walls of every one of his residences. Carol Newman

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Shop talk

Manhattan: Public policy shouldn’t be based on anecdotes, sweeping generalizations or unconstitutional premises. That is what supporters of commercial rent control, like Griffin Hansbury, are proposing, however (“How to bring back mom and pop,” Op-Ed, June 24). The facts are that the number of retail jobs and the amount of retail space in New York City are up, and rents in many locations are going down. Online sales are taking a larger share of retail transactions (as Hansbury knows from the sale of his book), and government continues to burden property owners and retailers with heavier regulatory and tax burdens. Large and small property owners, including the nearly 100,000 condo and co-op households that rely on retail, would be harmed by ill-advised legislation like the Small Business Jobs Survival Act or a vacancy tax. Finally, slapping a new name on commercial rent control doesn’t make it legal. John H. Banks, President, the Real Estate Board of New York

The big con

West Islip, L.I.: Doesn’t anyone see the reality of the focus on immigration, while corporate graft continues to do everlasting damage to our economy and our way of life? The Republicans just gave a gift to the corporations by lowering the tax rates, without closing the myriad of loopholes used to avoid paying a fair share. The biggest con is being perpetuated by the rich and the well-to-do. Isn’t it time America wakes up to facts, not “fake news”? I dare someone to tell me I am wrong. It is the corporate greed that is the problem in this country. Bill Romaka

Attack from within

Manhattan: What is a terrorist? Someone who sets off a bomb — or is it a bully who kidnaps your child and holds him hostage, or who kicks you back into a life-threatening situation? How about a deranged President who is obsessed with the fear that America is being cheated of billions, threatened by immigrants, and (worst) laughed at by other countries? Not satisfied with being the most ignorant and incompetent administration the U.S.A. has ever had, Trump and his “patriotic” Republicans are leading this country to disaster, courtesy of Russian influences that may never be fully revealed. Resistance is vital. Carol Robinson

The low road

Walden, N.Y.: So Sarah Huckabee Sanders gets kicked out of a restaurant just because she works at the White House. Where is the outrage? What if it had been because she was gay, or because she was black? The lack of backlash is appalling; our society is indeed in trouble. For all the criticism of the basket of deplorables, if this is how the enlightened act, with no repercussions, who are they to criticize President Trump? Thomas Ellis

Inhuman

Forest Hills: There’s a special place in hell for Donald Trump for causing untold pain and suffering, including irreparable long-term damage to countless victims of the Trump administration’s cruelty. These are innocent children he chooses to treat so sadistically and inhumanely. Trump has forfeited your membership in the human race. Sol Bilczic

Feeling it

Ridgefield, Conn.: Dear President Trump: This is how the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “empathy”: the feeling that you understand and share another person's experiences and emotions: the ability to share someone else’s feelings. This is a wonderful word to learn and use in your life. For example, your immigration policy. Michael Pickering

Lost children

Jackson Heights: Voicer Carole A. Michelman is apparently unable to empathize with the horror and fear experienced by a child suddenly deprived of the loving, nurturing care of their parents and thrust into a totally unfamiliar environment. I had lunch Saturday with my 88-year-old Jewish French friend (who immigrated to the US when she was 16) who had exactly that experience during the Nazi occupation of Paris. So what if she was sent off by her parents, in their successful effort to save her life, to a perfectly clean new house of a good Christian couple in the Paris suburbs, where she was well fed and had plenty of food and a bed? To this day she can still feel the unbearable pain of never again seeing her parents, who were murdered by the Nazis in a concentration camp. As for those illegal immigrant parents whom Michelman so disparages, would she choose to stay in a country where possibly her family members could be tortured or killed by gang members? They are simply trying to provide a better life for their children. Judith Natkins

Help wanted

Forest Hills: For all of you Trumpsters who were upset about the jobs that illegal immigrants were taking from you — well, since they are gone, the jobs are now open. Plenty of fruits and vegetables need picking. No experience necessary. Stew Frimer

Sorry, Charlie

Staten Island: Rest In Peace, Charles Krauthammer. Born in a democracy. Died in a banana republic. Ralph D’Esposito

The other immigrants

Bronx: To all those Voicers writing how all their great-grandparents immigrated here legally, I say read your history. Thousands of European sailors jumped ship once they reached the U.S. ports and stayed here illegally. During the Irish famine, thousands were smuggled into the U.S. Others crossed the Canadian border and settled here illegally. To this day, many from Eastern Europe fly here on student visas, vacations or for medical treatment, then disappear into the population. Why isn't the Trump administration putting them into illegal immigrant detention centers? Before you condemn the Hispanics coming here for a better and safer life, look up your own family history and find out when and how they really got here. Jose R. Roldan

Off PATH

Rockaway, N.J.: I’ve been taking the PATH train for over four years now, and recently the service has been horrific. I’m used to delays on the subway, but the PATH usually ran pretty reliably. Now I am delayed both ways, every single day. I’m curious to know what has changed in the last four years. I’m going to start looking into other modes of transportation because I seriously can’t take it anymore. James Keenan